David Mason

[Dan]

I recently read and reviewed Gate of Ivrel here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I mention my review (in this group) because in the first paragraph I cited an author Andre Norton admired greatly by the name of David Mason (1924-1974) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... Curious about the work of this author I'd never before heard of, I pulled up both his entries in Gutenberg.

The first one is titled "Something Will Turn Up" (1963), and darned if it wasn't a Classic Weird story. A really good one at that! Do you agree that this is Classic Weird, or am I broadening the definition too wide and starting to see too much as Weird: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24189/...?

The other David Mason story carried by Gutenberg, "Garrity's Annuities" (1956), is just as wonderful, but it's straight up science fiction. Or is it? I swear it has a strong twist of Classic Weird too, a certain element of horror is present for any devoted polygamist: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50981/...

[Kateblue]

got em. Will read soon

[Dan]

Here are another two David Mason short stories I was able to find. They're even more in the Weird mode than the previous two. I gave the previous two nine ratings at ISFDB (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?7082). I gave "The Time" a 10. It has the makings of a classic to my eyes. I gave the four-page story "Road Stop" a nine despite it being oddly prescient (view spoiler)[considering we are only now perfecting self-driving cars (hide spoiler)].

"The Time" (1970): https://archive.org/details/Fantastic...
"Road Stop" (1963): https://archive.org/details/1963-01_I...

What is it about Mason's writing that seems so magical? How does he make it look so easy? Here is a little more I was able to find about Mason: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...